Celebrating Your Money Wins – Volume 9

More specifically, I’m celebrating what is probably the biggest money win for me in a long time. It was a BAD day at work a few days ago. Not a Bad day. Not a bad day. It was an all caps, bold, underline bad day. To make things better in my mind, I started promising myself a trip to Starbucks at lunch.

It would only be $5.

Then, I thought about how I’m skipping Starbucks (since one leads to twelve and moderation does not exist in my life apparently), so I mentally switched that promise to one of a Diet Coke from the gas station.

But I passed on that too. In a total moment of weakness, I tried to stuff two $1 bills in a vending machine for a Diet Coke…and it wouldn’t take my money.

I trotted back up the stairs with $2 tucked in my pocket, and I stumbled across a quarter. By the time I got to my car later that day, I also spotted a nickel and a dime.

So what am I really celebrating? I saved $5. Or $1. Or maybe $2. I also found $0.40. But the real victory here is that this one moment of licking my wounds could have easily turned into a habit, especially since I’m so given to emotional spending lately. A habit full of unnecessary cost and calories. Phew!

Onto the real reasons you’re reading this post, though. Three more bloggers stepped up with huge money wins. Raise your cuppa caffeine to The Budget Epicurean,Felicity, and Erin.

A friend wanted to meet up for afternoon tea at Starbucks, because it had been a while since we last saw each other. It was spontaneous, but I had my travel mug of coffee from the morning. Rather than just go and get a cup, I washed out my mug in the bathroom sink and took it with me. I got my tea in the travel mug, saved a cup from being used, and got $0.10 off! Maybe I might have even planted a subtle seed in my friend’s head so that she brings a mug to future meet ups too.

Why are you pumped?

I saved a cup and lid and straw from being used and thrown away! Plus I saved myself 10 cents, and I am living my values.

What can others learn from it?

Even small amounts add up over time. Just 10 visits with your own mug nets you a dollar. And you can be a positive change for good to move towards a lower waste world.

I booked flights for my little brother’s wedding and to and from FinCon using Chase Ultimate Rewards points, most of the points being from the opening bonus for two separate Chase Sapphire Preferred cards (one in husband’s name, one mine). 50k bonus points * 2 + 10k points * 2 for referral (one referral being for spouse, one for family member) + some extra for purchasing previous trips on the cards, equals four round-trip flights and two nights in a hotel (and quite a bit of change)!

Why are you pumped?

I always thought I was “bad” at travel hacking as I wasn’t using each point to the max, but they do add up.

What can others learn from it?

If you use a card with more generic points like the Chase Ultimate Reward points, you don’t have to do as much research to get a sizeable amount of return on investment. I’d definitely recommend setting up, at the very least, reminders in your calendar to cancel after the introductory no-fee year is up, though! But even if you forget and are charged a fee, they should be able to prorate the fee and remove most or all of it if you act fast.

I went to Costco recently for a few things. Not only was one of the items on my list on sale (I hadn’t checked the sale flyer before I went so this was a pleasant surprise), I found out Costco has started stocking my favorite granola again after not having it for a while. Bonus: the granola was also on sale! So I stocked up and bought multiple bags just in case it disappears again.

Why are you pumped?

I love checking my receipt afterward to see how much I saved on groceries I was going to buy anyway, and my savings from that trip were $15.50, woo hoo! In order to make sure I actually SAVE that money instead of spending it elsewhere, I’ve got a separate savings account where I transfer the amount I save from buying things on sale. I’m usually transferring amounts ranging from a few cents to about $3, so the larger-than-normal $15.50 transfer was exciting.

What can others learn from it?

Keeping track of the amounts I save by buying groceries on sale helps remind me how little amounts add up over time. And as a bonus, the more I save on groceries (and in other places), the more I can afford to drop larger amounts of money than I normally would spend on groceries in order buy things in bulk when they’re on sale, thereby saving more money!

If you’d like to join the money win party, drop me a line at shepicksuppennies (at) gmail (dot) com with your answers to the three questions. Whether you are a blogger or a reader or both, you are welcome to party here!

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9 Comments

Love seeing these again this week! Just wanted to suggest to Felicity that it may be worth downgrading the Chase Sapphire card (CSP, I imagine?) to a Chase Freedom or Freedom Unlimited. Each comes with no annual fee, and would keep the average age of credit growing older instead of closing a card at one year. CFU earns 1.5% cash back on everything, while Freedom has different categories each quarter that earn 5%!!!

Agreed. Sometimes it’s because I wouldn’t buy it if it weren’t on sale. But if there’s something that I buy each week or each month regardless of price, I *should* bank the different like Erin, shouldn’t I?

Thanks for the tip about the Starbucks mugs. I see a few people chatting over them when I pop in some mornings, and I think it’s so cozy looking to have a real mug!

I also love the “how much you saved” line on my grocery store receipt! Makes it feel a little more worth it when it takes me 5+ minutes in the same isle to scour all the prices, figure out the actual price-per-unit, and finally decide if the purchase is necessary! —http://www.areweadultsyet.com

I do the same thing that Erin did too at Costco. Whenever something like cereal goes on sale I stock up on it to take advantage of the sale price because I usually don’t buy at regular price. Recently they had Honey Bunches of Oats on sale and bought close to five boxes of them and know that it will last me a while. Definite Money Win!

Small wins can compound quickly and over time, turn into large wins. That’s GE’s philosophy with their “continuous improvement” model. They aim to trim inefficiency out of their processes little by little each year with the incremental gains compounding and leading to meaningful improvement.

Change has to start somewhere. Sometimes it’s large, but quite often it’s small. And it’s these changes that catch most off guard about the power they can deliver. Congrats to you all on your money moves!